brain

Pronunciation

• IPA: /breɪn/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English brain,^[2] inherited from Old English bræġen (“brain”),^[3][4] from Proto-West Germanic *bragn,^[3][5] a word of uncertain origin:^[3] it is found in Old Frisian brein, Middle Low German bregen and Dutch brein,^[4][3][5] but not in Scandinavian or Gothic.^[4] Many dictionaries relate it to Greek brekhmós, bréchma “front part of the head”, from Proto-Indo-European *mregh- (“skull, brain”),^[3][4][2] but Liberman holds that brain has no established cognates outside West Germanic and is hardly related to the Greek word.^[6][3] He proposes instead a PIE *bhragno “something broken”, the source of Irish bran “chaff, bran”, so that Old English brægen would first have meant “refuse”, much like the modern phrase gray matter.^[6] The verb is from the noun.^[4][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old English brægen, “the brain”, is recorded about 1000;^[4][7] Middle English brain is from probably before 1200, in Layamon.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The brain as the organ of thought, memory and imagination is from about 1230,^[7] and figurative “intellectual power” from the late 14th century.^[3][7] The plural, for the substance rather than the organ, literal or figurative, dates from the 16th century.^[3] The verb, “to dash the brains out”, is from 1382, in the Wycliffe Bible.^[4][7] An electronic device performing operations like those of the brain is from 1934.^[7] A clever person is a brain by 1914,^[3][7] and brainy, “clever”, from 1845.^[4] To have something on the brain is from 1862.^[3] Brainwashing is from 1950, in American English, possibly a translation of Chinese xǐ nǎo “wash brain”.^[4] An Old English word for the head was brægnloca, literally “brain-locker”.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1000 – Old English brægen.^[4][7]
• c. 1230 – the organ of thought.^[7]
• 1382 – verb, to dash the brains out.^[4][7]
• late 14th century – intellectual power.^[3]
• 16th century – brains, the substance.^[3]
• 1845 – brainy.^[4]
• 1914 – a clever person.^[3][7]
• 1950 – brainwashing.^[4]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The organ inside the skull that controls the body and is the centre of thought, memory and feeling.
2. Intellectual power; intelligence: use your brain.
3. (informal) A very clever person.
4. (informal) the brains: The person who plans an operation.
5. brains: The brain of an animal used as food.

Verb

1. To kill by smashing the skull; to hit hard on the head.

Word family

• brainlike

Related words

• brainy
• brainstorm
• brainwash
• brainchild
• harebrained
• scatterbrained

Usage notes

A separate Middle English adjective brain, “furious, mad”, is from about 1340.^[7]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Liberman, Anatoly (2008), An Analytic Dictionary of English Etymology: An Introduction, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press